Amsterdam & Albany, New York & Sandusky, OH
July 23rd-25th, 2000

July 24th, 2000 - Albany-Rensselaer, NY

I got off my train in Albany and pretty much felt like a kid in a candy store, if you know what I mean!!! First, I never saw so many Amtrak trains in one area before (I've never been to New York City or Chicago) so this was big!!! The platforms at the Albany station are long enough for many different photo angles and since there are 3 actual tracks that the trains park at, there are lots of trains to photograph on any given day. For easier reference throughout this section of the report, I'll list the numbers of the trains seen here followed by their names, here's the list:

Trains Seen In Albany When I Was There:

Train #:

Train Name:

Final Destination:

48/448

Lake Shore Limited

New York/Boston

49/449

Lake Shore Limited

Chicago

63

Maple Leaf

Toronto, Ontario

64

Maple Leaf

New York

68

Adirondack

New York

69

Adirondack

Montreal, Quebec

253

Service (No Name)

Albany-Rensselaer

259

Service (No Name)

Albany-Rensselaer

262

Service (No Name)

New York

281

Mohawk

Niagara Falls

283

Empire State Express

Niagara Falls

286

Empire State Express

New York

291

Ethan Allen Express

Rutland, Vermont

294

Ethan Allen Express

New York

As my train was pulling into the station in Albany, I noticed something rather strange parked on the main track. It was Amtrak #48/448 shown in the photo above at 2:12pm. The only difference here is the train is being broken up and just about ready to depart to New York and Boston. In the photo seen above, the New York section is shown with P32AC-DM #715 getting ready to uncouple from the Boston Section and head to New York. The Boston section is the rest of the train from the last 2 Coaches to the end. It's power will be the 2 units that brought the train here from Chicago.

Here is another view of Train #286, the crews change in Albany on this train, as do many others. The train is serviced here and usually sits for 10 minutes at the station.

Here is a wide-angle view on the platform between Tracks 2, and 1 of Train #286 on the left and #48 on the right with passengers waiting to cross so that #48 can leave for New York.

Train #48, now having uncoupled from the Boston Section, is seen leaving Albany at 2:15pm.

Not just a few minutes after #48 left, #281 showed up in Albany on its way to Niagara Falls around 2:20pm. This train will make it's service stop here for about 10 minutes. Dobbs Food Service, the main food supplier for Amtrak will do its thing and refill the train with more snacks, pop (nobody calls it soda in Buffalo!!), and beer. Shortly after that, the train will depart. Notice how both the new and current Amtrak Stations can be seen in the left of this photo, something that won't be possible after this winter when the new station opens and the old one is transformed into a parking lot.

OK, there's a lot happening here, the locomotive in the left of this slide is P32AC-DM #708 with 1 cafe car and 2 Amfleet 1 Coaches, it will become Train #262 and eventually board passengers and head to New York. To the right, is the Boston Section of the Lake Shore Limited, Train #448, still waiting for its original power that brought it here along with a cafe car that it will couple up to before heading to Boston.

Now with its power and a cafe car connected, Train #448 prepares to leave Albany with Train #262 peaking from behind.

As I said before, Albany is getting a New Amtrak station which is set to open sometime in early 2001. Seen here, this will be the main building and where I stood to take this slide will be a parking lot. Amtrak has teamed up here with the local transit service serving the Capital Region to have a complete transportation center. Syracuse currently has something similar to this. The new station will feature enclosed elevated platforms for the trains as well as parking ramps and bus connection areas, among other things.

Seen here is the old Albany-Rensselaer station, which of course, follows Amtrak's very plain design used on many of its stations. I figured I'd get a slide of it before the wrecking ball is brought in next year.